Nijubashi Bridge, The Imperial Palace

Having collected our Japan Raill Paases from Shinjuku Station we caught a very crowded subway train to the Senso-ji shrine in the Asakusa district of Tokyo. We soon realised why the train was so full as the shrine itself was heaving with Saturday visitors, both locals and tourists as the photo in extras shows.

The air was heady with incense and there seemed to be a ceremony being conducted by the monks within the shrine, involving a small family group. Costumes didn’t seem fine enough for a wedding.

After a short meander around the local market stalls and shops, we had planned to get the river boat down to the Hamarikyu Gardens but unfortunately just missed one and, as the the next one wasn’t for two hours, we took to the subway again.

The gardens were slightly less manicured than yesterday’s but still lovely and we enjoyed a traditional matcha tea with Japanese sweets (see extras).

The weather was beginning to turn showery so it was off to another subway station to get a train to Tokyo station as we wanted to get a glimpse of the Imperial Palace, which isn’t open to the public.

When we came out of the station it was raining seriously so we had a late lunch of pizzas and local craft ale before braving the showers for this view of the Palace and the Nijubashi bridge which is only used by the Emperor on State occasions or  by visiting dignitaries.

We were so tired by the time we got back to the hotel after another 25000 plus steps and the rain had set in so it was sandwiches from the local 7/11 in our hotel room and an early night!